Ives Galarcep

Published on Oct. 9, 2014

Oct. 9, 2014

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EAST HARTFORD, Conn.— Facing a loaded question about his decision to call in a player from the North American Soccer League and what sort of message that must send to players in Major League Soccer, U.S. national team coach Jurgen Klinsmann proceeded to open up a can of worms by admitting he wished American professional soccer used a system of promotion and relegation.

“I’m a deep believer in (the) promotion-relegation system,” Klinsmann told media in his press conference the day before Friday’s USA friendly against Ecuador. “So it’s not up to me to say there should be MLS and the second division should be NASL, and there should be promotion-relegation. I just wish that we had a system in place where all the young players and all the players in general know that there’s a next higher level and there’s a lower level.

“If I play a bad season, then the lower level is waiting for me. If I play a very, very good season, then there’s the chance to go up and play at one point whatever you describe then as the highest level.”

Klinsmann’s remarks come weeks after recent statements from MLS officials making it clear that Major League Soccer has no plans to ever be a part of a promotion-relegation system.

"Right now, our system is very different," MLS commissioner Don Garber told media recently when asked about promotion-relegation. "It is a franchise model. We have investors that are sharing in revenue. We have salary caps that solve the issue that promotion and relegation is trying to address, which is ultimately ensuring that everybody steps up to the plate and invests in their clubs.

“I certainly don't see promotion and relegation any time in the near future. What happens 50 years from now, I won't be around to worry about.”

U.S. Soccer, as the sport’s governing body in the country, could mandate the establishing of promotion and relegation as the required system for all professional leagues, but U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati made it clear in recent comments that U.S. Soccer has no intention of doing that any time soon.

“When the system came into play in Europe and the rest of the world, that was the agreement coming in,” Gulati told media earlier this month. “So if you're an owner and you buy into a system right now and you pay X amount of dollars to get in, and the rules of the game change the next day, essentially expropriating assets that were worth X -- that's not something we're going to be doing.”

Klinsmann was quick to make it clear that his support of promotion-relegation wasn’t a knock on either MLS or the NASL, but rather his own wish for a professional set-up that had more established tiers.

“I’m not there to judge their work. I’m thrilled where MLS is today and within the last 20 years what happened is absolutely amazing,” Klinsmann said. “But from a national team perspective, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to connect the dots. We’re talking to the college coaches, I talk to NASL coaches, I talk to the MLS coaches and I talk to all the different coaches overseas and see where all of our guys are.

“If I watch things half a year kind of closely – sometimes a bit closely, sometimes a bit more from distance – a little kid called (Miguel) Ibarra or a striker called (Christian) Ramirez, they’re playing in NASL then we watch them. I send the coaches out there, that’s why we have scouts out there and have a look at that kid. Maybe there are a couple of other guys that just didn’t go through that pathway. They didn’t go this pathway.”

Klinsmann turned heads with his decision to call in Ibarra, who has blossomed as a star winger on Minnesota United, the top team in the NASL, which is generally regarded as the American second division with MLS holding first-division status. Unlike most pro soccer leagues around the world, American soccer does not have a promotion-relegation system, which allows clubs from all levels to move up or down levels depending on performance.

Klinsmann has begun tugging away at the long-held perceptions about the pecking order of talent in American soccer, as evidenced by his recent call-up of college standout Jordan Morris to the national team, and more recently with Ibarra.

“Our job is to identify the talent, figure out how good he really is,” Klinsmann said. “We’ve got to weed a little bit where could he go his path, what consequences does it have that he’s now with us for him personally, but also sending out that signal to all the other players out there saying, ‘You know what, we understand there are so many different directions because the U.S. soccer landscape is what it is. It’s so different to the rest of the world.’”

“We’re looking around,” Klinsmann added. “I talk to the college coaches if there’s another Jordan Morris. We send Jordan Morris with the U-23s down to Brazil because it’s huge playing the U-23s of Brazil, otherwise he would have been here with the senior national team.

“We have to look around and encourage everybody to push themselves. We can now talk to Miguel Ibarra and tell him this is what you need now, and this is where you’ve gotta step it up.”